Tokyo summers are brutal — high 30s and sticky humidity that makes you want to melt into the nearest air-conditioned convenience store. For years the government has pushed “Cool Biz,” the whole no-tie, no-jacket, dress-down thing so people don’t drop dead at their desks.
Lately though, more guys are taking it further and actually wearing shorts to the office. Makes perfect sense, right? Except some women are calling it “leg hair harassment” — or sunehara online.
The complaint is basically: they don’t want to look at their male coworkers’ hairy calves all day. A few people also point out the double standard — women are still expected to wear tights if they show any leg, while the guys get to go full short-shorts.
Apparently some of the men are feeling self-conscious about it too. Laser hair removal clinics are seeing more male customers who don’t want their legs judged at the next meeting.
Japanese guys tend to have less leg hair than a lot of foreign guys anyway, but that hasn’t stopped the conversation. There’s even talk of “smell harassment” floating around in the same discussions, because of course there is.
Is sunehara an actual widespread problem, or just another summer silly-season buzzword that got picked up and run with? Hard to say. What is clear is that the heat isn’t going anywhere, and neither are the office dress-code debates.